What is a Meme?

Merriam-Webster defines meme as an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.

You don't have to look far or that carefully to find memes in our corporate media. Memes in our media are started by those with a political or profit agenda. For example, the meme of "trains good, planes bad" has been propagated by the very successful PR firm Hill & Nolton who seeds the media with negative stories about airline travel while simultaneously seeding positive stories about train travel. Their clients have ties with the freight industry who are trying to bolster public sentiment towards high-speed rail projects in order to get public funding to build new rail infrastructure. The public thinks they will get great train service for passenger travel when in reality it is private corporations who will benefit by more infrastructure to move freight by rail.

Memes are also used in times of conflict to bolster public opinion about a government's actions. For example, mentioning Iraq, Saddham, and yellow cake over and over sets a meme in motion eventually used to support illegal actions.

Here is another meme example about the TSA and guns.